Leaning is a fire that needs kindling

I'm happy for the children in the more than 10 primary schools in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, who, instead of sitting their final examinations, enjoyed garden parties where they learned new knowledge and developed skills. The children received a report based on their performance at the parties and their schoolwork.

The schools made the change because they felt that the traditional exams - previously the only means of evaluating students - stifled children's interest in learning and put too much pressure on them. Many primary school students prepare for their final exams by burning the midnight oil.

The move to do away with final exams in cities such as Hangzhou, Nanjing and Wuhan may help establish a new process to evaluate students. And this raises a fundamental question: What is education for?

Education should not merely prepare students to enter the job market or help them climb the ladder of success, it should also help them to think for themselves and help their minds to grow.

The joy of learning should be an essential part of education.

Unfortunately, our education at present is aimed at making students conform and succeed in a society where the burning question on most people's lips is: "How can I get rich quick?"

The superficial polish of learning students acquire at school is seemingly for this purpose only.

Teachers prepare children to pass examinations, but they do not talk to them about life, for the simple reason few of them know about life.

Education should help students understand life with all its subtleties and complexity - its beauty, its sorrows and joys.

True education is to learn how to think instead of what to think. The shortcomings of our education system have prompted many parents to turn to Chinese language textbooks published and used in primary schools between 1912 and 1949. These books start by teaching children to respect their teachers and peers, observe nature and provide the basics of how to develop into persons of integrity.

The simple words, accompanied by illustrations, convey very basic, but important knowledge and moral requirements.

Each year more and more parents choose to home-school their children. Some critics believe that parents choose to teach their kids at home in order to keep them sheltered, but few home-schooling parents say this is the motivating reason.

Instead, most parents who choose home schooling say it is because they want their children to be happy and to provide their children good social interaction in a safe environment.

Do parents especially those lacking any teaching credentials - have a right to home-school their children?

Do they have the freedom to choose the kind of education they want for their children?

The law on nine-year compulsory education stipulates that all children must attend school for at least nine years, starting at age six or seven. But the Ministry of Education does not track the number of home-schooled youngsters. And no parents have been sued for teaching their children at home.

There are those that argue that an unconventional education means children have difficulty in adjusting themselves to the world later on in life.

But home schooling is an option some parents choose for their children as they feel it is a preferable alternative to the exam-focused treadmill that is our current education system.

The author is a senior writer with China Daily.

(China Daily 01/17/2012 page8)